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A Thread about music!

09-26-2012, 11:08 AM

I started listening to jazz at an early age and I really like it. I have a good ear, and I can sing (scat) not too shabby improvised jazz solos. But, my technical chops and harmonic knowledge were never up to playing jazz guitar.

However, I started experimenting with chord progressions - just trying to see where you can go from a beginning chord and how you can get chains of chords to eventually resolve. In this way, I discovered several progressions I liked and wrote some melodies over them and started to try to improvise. But I got to the point where I felt stuck.

I happened to mention all this to a young (compared to me) bass player I know and he was interested to see what I was up to. He plays in a jazz band, is formally schooled, and has a very positive vibe.

So what happened is that I'm taking "lessons" from him. He does play the guitar, but these are not guitar lessons. They include instruction and exercises in scales, harmony, time and so on. We are using a book I got off the internet (Guitar Training: Material for the Jazz Guitar) that has audio and video examples. But the best part is playing my tunes with him accompanying me on bass. He transcribes them so we can see their structure, and this lets me know what I'm doing in a concrete way, and where I can make improvements and changes, and experiment with different solos.

Wow! This is very gratifying! I'm having a great time!

NOTE: The absence of smilies in this post should not be taken to mean that I think your post is stupid, nor that I loath, despise, or hate you; nor that I disrespect you and all your works; nor that I see you as victim or lawful prey; nor think you have the intellect of half a loaf of bread; nor that I find you disgusting or unworthy or otherwise hate your behavior, opinions, politics, gender, sexual orientation, culture, ethnic background or language.

Comment

I'm not sayin' my stuff is any good - just that I'm having fun ****************ing with it!

NOTE: The absence of smilies in this post should not be taken to mean that I think your post is stupid, nor that I loath, despise, or hate you; nor that I disrespect you and all your works; nor that I see you as victim or lawful prey; nor think you have the intellect of half a loaf of bread; nor that I find you disgusting or unworthy or otherwise hate your behavior, opinions, politics, gender, sexual orientation, culture, ethnic background or language.

Comment

this is why I took music and piano as electives in college...I needed to understand why I was so bad at playing....as it turned out, I was just misunderstood.
To this day my band mates make me 'dumb down' my originals' arrangements to 'lesser' chords to keep them from getting confused...like using a D7 rather than a Cdim...to me it makes little sense, but that is because I understand the voice leading. I'm never going to be a great jazz player, but I certainly understand what they are doing.

"We are currently experiencing some technical difficulties due to reality fluctuations. The elves are working tirelessly to patch the correct version of reality. Activities here have been temporarily disabled since the fundamentals of mathematics, physics and reason may be incomprehensible during this indeterminent period of instability. Normal service will be restored once we are certain as to what 'normal' is."

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally used up and worn out, shouting '...man, what a ride!'

Comment

Yeah DM, mot of the guys I play with want to keep it down to three chords, and that's OK for a vast amount of music, but not all the stuff I hear in my head that wants to get out.

It's just another way of stretching, I guess. Today, my teacher and I were talking about that after he had given me some metronome exercises (p l a y v e r y s l o w l y a n d l i s t e n t o t h e s p a c e s). He said you want to always be pushing your envelope a little at a time, so that in 6 months you'll playing stuff with ease that seems hard now and won't realize you are gaining on it. Sounds about right to me.

NOTE: The absence of smilies in this post should not be taken to mean that I think your post is stupid, nor that I loath, despise, or hate you; nor that I disrespect you and all your works; nor that I see you as victim or lawful prey; nor think you have the intellect of half a loaf of bread; nor that I find you disgusting or unworthy or otherwise hate your behavior, opinions, politics, gender, sexual orientation, culture, ethnic background or language.

F*** 'em if they can't take a joke!

Comment

I agree that the spaces between the notes are just as important as the notes! Sounds like you found a good teacher

"We are currently experiencing some technical difficulties due to reality fluctuations. The elves are working tirelessly to patch the correct version of reality. Activities here have been temporarily disabled since the fundamentals of mathematics, physics and reason may be incomprehensible during this indeterminent period of instability. Normal service will be restored once we are certain as to what 'normal' is."

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally used up and worn out, shouting '...man, what a ride!'

Comment

"We are currently experiencing some technical difficulties due to reality fluctuations. The elves are working tirelessly to patch the correct version of reality. Activities here have been temporarily disabled since the fundamentals of mathematics, physics and reason may be incomprehensible during this indeterminent period of instability. Normal service will be restored once we are certain as to what 'normal' is."

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally used up and worn out, shouting '...man, what a ride!'